Joel Osteen: On Prayer

Hi. I’m Joel Osteen. I’m the author of Every Day a Friday. 

You know, a lot of people talk to me about how they don’t know how to pray. They weren’t raised in an environment like mine, and they think we have to do these formal prayers of these and thous. But I always encourage people, praying is just talking to God, like you’d talk to your good friend. And I don’t think you have to do this deep theological language. I think you can just say, “God, I’m asking you to help me today. Help me to make good decisions. I’m asking you to protect my family.” I think all through the day you can pray. The scripture says to pray without ceasing, and I think that just means, under your breath you can say, “God, help me to do good in this interview. Help me to do good in this business meeting, or God, give me the wisdom to make good decisions.” 

So I’ll just encourage you, God will be as close to you as you want Him to be. You can put Him in a Sunday morning box or a Christmas box, and talk to Him once a year, or you can talk to Him every day. And I believe, when you show honor to God, when you value and acknowledge Him, the scripture says, one place says, He’ll crown your efforts with success. And so, I think it’s important to get up in the morning and say, “God, thank you for another day. Thank you that I’m alive and healthy. Help me to do good today.” I think when you acknowledge God like that, I mean, that’s praying. That’s when God will help your day to go better.